On Friday, Microsoft seized web servers in Pennsylvania and Indiana under a civil action authorized by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Two financial industry associations — the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center and the National Automated Clearing House Association — were part of the civil action. According to the NY Times, it was Microsoft personnel...

I paid a posthumous visit last week to the world I once lived in—-a Manhattan gathering of privileged people giving money and time to a cause of caring and concern. Nothing has changed. The well-to-do and a few celebrities mingle at a reception and then sit in an auditorium to applaud expressions of social and political decency. The faces are new, but they belong to people trying to reach out past the solitude...

Is the Nuclear Security Summit about to begin in Seoul a way for those who profit from nuclear power to sweep the concerns of the world’s people under the rug? This editorial from South Korea’s The Hankyoreh warns that the summit – the first nuclear summit to be held since Fukushima – is in danger of being hijacked by a ‘nuclear power mafia’ comprised of the major nuclear...

It’s a great juxtaposition of the absurd. Trayvon Martin was killed on February 26 and the man who confessed still walks free, no arrest. Kim Kardashian was “flour bombed” on Thursday … and the perp was arrested … right? Wrong, despite what Piers Morgan, LeVar Burton, Think Progress and a host of other celebrities, entertainers and normal folks say. My Storify tells all. (The...

Has the scientific method lost all relevance to conservative Republicans in America? The question is not new. But now, according to this editorial from Switzerland’s News, a scientific study conducted by researchers at Yale University shows that not only doesn’t the U.S. right put much stock in what is known as ‘scientific fact,’ but more educated Republicans are just as resistant to...

By WALTER BRASCH (This is Part 2 of 3. Part 1 looked at a state gag order on physicians; Part 3 examines why Pennsylvania is giving special consideration to the natural gas companies.) The natural gas industry defends hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, as safe and efficient. Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, a pro-industry non-profit organization, claims fracking...

I’m thrilled to be a part of the Civic Commons, a social media organization based in Cleveland that works for the civic good. [My project is the EfficientGovNetwork. Charting the Future of Fracking, is one reason why. Take a look at how much has been discussed just since it opened at 8:30am this morning. If you want to get the feel for how extensive the issues and emotions are on this topic, there’s...

Here’s a great infographic from MBA Online on A Day in the Internet: Created by: MBA Online

One year after one of the most devastating catastrophes in living memory, there seems to be no end to Japan’s inner turmoil. According to this editorial from Japan’s Too Nippo Shimbun, recently released transcripts from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission not only demonstrate America’s proactive attitude in a crisis, they expose a deep-seated tendency among Japanese decision-makers to underestimate...

Could the catastrophe that caused the nuclear disaster at Fukishima been predicted?  It not only could have it was. But Japan’s nuclear regulators and utilities not only ignored the predictions but supressed them. But some insiders from Japan’s tightly knit nuclear industry have stepped forward to say that Tepco and regulators had for years ignored warnings of the possibility of a larger-than-expected...

A solar flare is heading to earth. Some predict it could disrupt satellites and GPS. Some impacts have already been noted:

It was the buzz in my class tonight: “Have you seen the #StopKony campaign? It came out of nowhere!” I, unfortunately, knew only that it was trending on Twitter. I’d not had time to poke around. And then danah boyd (@zephoria) came to my rescue: A critique of the Kony 2012 film & the Invisible Children #stopkony campaign: http://bit.ly/wXyDAy (oversimplified msgs can do damage) The tweet...

A Mary­land pedi­a­tri­cian found that seri­ous injuries to pedes­tri­ans wear­ing head­phones have more than tripled in the last six years. Neil Wagner: Look­ing over case reports of pedes­tri­an injuries or fatal­i­ties involv­ing mov­ing vehi­cles between 2004 and 2011, the doc­tor and his team found 116 where the vic­tim was using head­phones. Sev­en­ty per­cent of these acci­dents...

Girl Scouts USA: A 100th Birthday Salute by Danny Tyree It’s a regrettable sign of our fast-paced lives. After Veterans Day our thoughts of the nation’s heroes go back into mothballs along with their uniforms. After Christmas, “good will to men” shifts into channeling our inner Scrooge once more. And after the last box of Thin Mints has been consumed, Girl Scouts tend to become “out...

TED 2012 Remixed: It’s Time For TED. A video homage that works just as well as a critique… The New Inquiry, Against TED: What began as something spontaneous and unique has today become a parody of itself. What was exceptional and emergent in the realm of ideas has been bottled, packaged, and sold back to us over and over again. The whole TED vibe has come to resemble a sales pitch. It’s tempting...

The future is closer than we think. Really: In a small clean room tucked into the back of San Diego–based startup Organovo, Chirag Khatiwala is building a thin layer of human skeletal muscle. He inserts a cartridge of specially prepared muscle cells into a 3-D printer, which then deposits them in uniform, closely spaced lines in a petri dish. This arrangement allows the cells to grow and interact until they...

Remember the old story about the Emperor with no clothes? President Barack Obama is speaking to AIPAC now. I am not watching but do see the Tweets. Obama isn’t pleasing anyone. He has no clothes. The Hill suggests that Obama’s speech is critical for retention of the Jewish vote in 2012. This is ridiculous because almost nobody trusts Obama or believes what he is saying (based on experience with...

One of Saturday’s responses to my tweets about Rush Limbaugh’s “slut” and “prostitute” language was a friend asking me about Bill Maher and Sarah Palin. I wasn’t familiar with that dust-up; I don’t subscribe to HBO and I don’t pay attention to Bill Maher. And it was March 2011, when I was recovering from health issues and ignoring politics. We talked about...

Why bother writing articles, posts and comments based upon any analysis of facts, reality or logic? Honestly seeking scientific, rational and legal causation for the many events occurring in a complex world has become a waste of time. When pervasive apathy, congenital stupidity, willful ignorance, massive denial, and irrational religious and ideological dogmas dominate the majority of the U.S. electorate and...

Rumor has it that Microsoft could have 9 flavors of Windows 8. That’s up from 6 versions of Windows 7. And seven more than Apple’s two versions of OS X: If this key is to be believed, Windows 8 will be available in the six editions of Windows 7 with the addition of Windows 8 Professional Plus, Enterprise Evaluation, and ARM edition. That makes nine Windows 8 versions in all — seven more editions...